The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child

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Character Formation in Adolescence

Peter Blos

To cite this article: Peter Blos (1968) Character Formation in Adolescence, The Psychoanalytic
Study of the Child, 23:1, 245-263, DOI: 10.1080/00797308.1968.11822958

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 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE

PETER BLOS, Ph.D. (New York)

The problem of character formation is of such a vast scope that

almost any aspect of psychoanalytic theory is related to it. This fact
tells us at the outset that we deal with a concept of enormous com-
plexityor with integrative processes of the highest order. It is a sober-
ing and welcome limitation to concentrate on the adolescent period
and investigate, in this circumscribed domain, whether this particu-
lar stage of development affords us insight into the formative process
of character, and consequently throws light on the concept of char-
acter in general. It would not be the first time in the history of psy-
choanalysis that the nature of a psychic phenomenon becomes illumi-
nated by the study of its formation.
Whoever has studied adolescence, regardless of theoretical back-
ground, has been aware of changes in the maturing personality that
are generally identified with character formation. Even the untu-
tored observer of youth, or the adult who retrospectively contem-
plates his own adolescence, cannot fail to notice that, with the termi-
nation of adolescence, a new mode of dealing with the exigencies of
life is in evidence. Behavior, attitudes, interests, and relationships
appear more predictable, show a relatively greater stability, and tend
to become irreversible, even under stress .
. The psychoanalytic observer of adolescence can attest to these
findings. However, he asks himself which psychic mechanisms or
which maturational processes are at work in character formation.
The process of formation, indeed, raises the question of "what takes
form" and "what gives form"; furthermore, what are the precondi-
tions for the formation of character, and why and to what extent does
it occur at the stage of adolescence? Precursors of character can be

Presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, New

York, December 16, 1967.

245
246 PETER BLOS

discerned abundantly in childhood. However, we would not at-

tribute to these rather habitual ways in which the ego deals with id,
superego and reality the designation of character, because the inte-
grated, rather fixed pattern of its disparate components is still lack-
ing. Due to the adolescent forward step in the organization of char-
acter traits, Gitelson (1948) referred to "character synthesis" as the
essential therapeutic task during the adolescent period. Empirically,
we all have come to similar conclusions. However, I believe that the
formation of character in adolescence is the outcome of psychic re-
structuring or, in other words, it is the manifest sign of a completed,
not necessarily complete, passage through adolescence. We all had
occasion to observe how the analysis of an adolescent, especially of
the older adolescent, moves toward its termination by the silent
emergence of character. What do we mean by this obvious something
that emerges? This question forces us to consider some pertinent as-
pects of psychoanalytic characterology.

CHARACTER TRAITS AND CHARACTER

The etymological root of the word "character" in the Greek verb

of "to furrow and to engrave" has always remained part of the con-
cept of character in regard to the permanency and fixity of pattern or
design. These permanencies are represented, in terms of personality,
by distinctive traits or qualities and by typical or idiosyncratic ways
of conducting oneself. Even the stvle of life and temperamental atti-
tudes were here and there brought into the broad scope of character.
In the psychoanalytic literature on character we encounter an im-
precise and inconsistent use of terms. The interchangeable use of
"character," "character type," and "character trait" has been particu-
larly confusing. We can, roughly, distinguish four approaches to
classical psychoanalytic characterology. In one approach (Freud,
1908; Abraham, 1921, 1924, 1925; Jones, 1918; Glover, 1924), the
character trait is .traced to a specific level of drive development or
drive fixation (e.g., oral character traits); in another (W. Reich, 1928,
1930), the defensive aspect of the ego represents the decisive factor
(e.g., the reactive character); in the third (Freud, 1939), it is the fate
of object libido that determines the character (e.g., the narcissistic or
anaclitic character); and in the ~ourth (Erikson, 1946), it is the influ-
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 247

ence of environment, culture, and history that engraves- a patterned

and preferential style of life on people (the psychosocial definition of
character). Of course, these four determinants of character traits
and of character are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, they ap-
pear in various admixtures and combinations. The salient feature of
each characterological formation is the implicit ego syntonicity -and
absence of conflict, as distinct from neurotic symptom formation, and
the patterned fixity of the characterological organization.
Two widely accepted definitions of character read as follows:
". . . typical mode of reaction of the ego towards the id and the
outer world" (W. Reich, 1929, p. 149).
" ... the habitual mode of bringing into harmony the tasks pre-
sented by internal demands and by the external world, is necessarily
a function of ... the ego" (Fenichel, 1945, p. 467).
Character originates in conflict, but, by its very nature, it pre-
vents the arousal of signal anxiety through the codification of conflict
solutions. The automatization of dealing with idiosyncratic danger
situations represents a considerable forward step in personality inte-
gration and functioning. Indeed, character formation can be concep-
tualized from an adaptive point of view, and clinical evidence in
support of such a thesis is easily obtainable. The economic gain in-
herent in character formation frees psychic energy for the expansion
of adaptive inventiveness and the actualization of human potentiali-
ties. The economic gain involved in character formation was stated
clearly by Freud (1913): "repression either does not come into action
[in character formation] or smoothly achieves its aim of replacing
the repressed by reaction-formations and sublimations" (p. 323).
Having observed these substitutions in the analysis of adolescents, I
wonder whether the countercathexis of the reactive (defensive) char-
acter does not restrict rather than expand the adaptive scope of self-
realization. I shall return to this question.
The transformation of drive fixations into character traits is so
universal and so well documented that it requires little comment. It
might, however, not be superfluous to mention that instinctual pre-
dilections in combination with special sensitivities constitute in-
herent aspects of human development. When drive fixations are
transformed into character traits, the qualitative and quantitative
248 PETER BLOS

factors due to endowment bestow on each character a highly indi-

vidualistic countenance.
We are familar with the host of character traits that take their
origin, separately or mixed, in the various levels of psychosexual de-
velopment. Secondarily, the ego makes use of such proclivities by
drawing them into its own realm and employing them for its own
purposes. We then speak of the sublimation type of character. If the
instinctual predilection gives rise to conflict, then the automatization
of defenses marks the character in some decisive fashion, as is exem-
plified in the reactive character. We can see that the 1J.xed ego atti-
tude of dealing with danger (e.g., "avoidances") has a broader, more
inclusive scope than a character trait derived from drive transforma-
tions (e.g., "obstinacy"). Yet, we cannot discern such circumscribed,
enduring, and fixed ego reactions in children because the child's ego
remains partly and significantly interlocked with parental and en-
vironmental object dependencies up to the age of puberty. We cer-
tainly can discern distinct character traits in the child. However,
what appears as character in childhood is mainly a pattern of ego
attitudes, stabilized by identifications, which, as we know, can under-
go a most radical revision during adolescence. Here lies one further
reason for the fact that character formation and adolescence are syn-
onymous. Precocious character consolidation occurring before pu-
berty should be looked at as an abnormal development, because it
precludes that essential elasticity and flexibility of psychic structure
without which the adolescent process cannot take its normal course.
The distinction between character traits and character corre-
sponds with the developmental line of demarcation drawn by adoles-
cence. Character traits, then, are not identical with character per se,
nor is character simply the sum total of character traits. Of course,
we can trace in each individual oral, anal, urethral, and phallic-
genital characteristics or character traits, but neither one of these
characteristics suffices, nor can it do justice to a person's character as
a monolithic structure. If we recognize in a person a degree of order-
liness, stubbornness, and frugality, we no doubt are confronted with
anal character traits. However, we hesitate to call that person an anal
character unless we know more about the economic, structural, and
dynamic factors, indeed, the degree to which these traits are still
cathected with anal erotism and the extent to which these traits be-
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 249

came emancipated from infantile bondage and In time acquired

functions far removed from their genetic source.
We are reminded here of Hartmann's (1952) statement thatjde-
fensive ego functions can lose their defensive nature in time and
become valuable and integral ego assets serving a far wider function
than the original defensive one. Similarly, it can be said that "re-
active character formation, originating in defense against the drives,
may gradually take over a host of other functions in the framework
of the ego" (Hartmann, 1952, p. 25), namely, remain a part of the
personality despite the fact that its original raison d' eire has van-
ished. Hartmann's point of view opens up two avenues of thought:
either the defensive nature of the character trait is altered because it
is emptied of its countercathexis; or, on the other hand, the id com-
ponent is afforded a nonconflictual gratification in the exercise and
maintenance of character. Could it be that the attainment of the
genital level of drive maturation during adolescence facilitates either
one of these outcomes? Furthermore, could it be assumed' that these
transitions or modifications of character traits into character forma-
tion are the cardinal achievement of adolescence? We certainly ascer-
tain in character formation integrative processes, structurings and
patternings that belong to a different order than a mere bundling to-
gether of traits, attitudes, habits and idiosyncrasies. Lampl-de Groot
(1963), following a similar line of thought, modified the earlier defi-
nitions of character (W. Reich, 1929; Fenichel, 1945) by saying that
character is the habitual way in which integration is achieved.

THE FUNCTION OF CHARACTER

My remarks, up to this -point.jabout character formation have

carried an implicit assumption that should now be stated directly and
affirmatively. It should, however, be borne in mind that these propo-
sitions are laid down here only in order to pave the road to the
central theme of this investigation, namely, the relationship between
the adolescent process and character formation.
It is assumed .that character, as a definitive component of adult
psychic structure, performs an. essential function in the mature
psychic organism.•This function is manifested in the maintenance of
psychosomatic homeostasis, in patterned self-esteem regulation (A.
250 PETER BLOS

Reich, 1958), in the stabilization of ego identity (Erikson, 1956), and

in the automatization of threshold and barrier levels, both shifting in
accordance with the intensity of internal or external stimuli. This
regulatory function includes the containment of affective fluctuations
within a tolerable range, including depression, as a major determi-
nant in character formation (Zetzel, 1964).
The more complex a psychic formation, the more elusive to the
observer becomes the total configuration or organization. The con-
cept of character is a case in point. We have to content ourselves with
the study of components or, more precisely, with a description of the
whole in terms of the function of its constituent parts. The whole can
be assembled as a psychic entity from such fractional comprehensions
(Lichtenstein, 1965). Two investigative approaches are now open to
us; one, to study observable functions in order to impute structure
(dynamic, economic principle); and, two, to trace the growth of a
psychic formation and see how it comes into its own (genetic princi-
ple). These approaches are not the result of an arbitrary choice, but
they are forced upon us by the nature of our subject. Character for-
mation is, generally speaking, an integrative process and as such
aims at the elimination of conflict and anxiety arousal. Weare re-
minded of Anna Freud's (1936) statement that the ego cannot be
studied when it is in harmony with id, superego, and the outer
world; it reveals its nature only when disharmony between the psy-
chic institutions prevails. We are faced with a similar dilemma in
studying character. Here, too, we can clearly describe pathological
character formation, while the typical process of character formation
remains elusive. In the analysis of adolescents we cannot fail to notice
how character takes shape silently, how it consolidates proportionate
to the severance from and dissolution of infantile ties: like Phoenix
rising from its ashes.
Let us return now to the question why the formation of character
occurs at the stage of adolescence or, rather, at the termination of
adolescence. Generally, we recognize developmental progression by
the appearance of new psychic formations as the consequence of dif-
ferentiating processes. Drive and ego maturation always leads to a
new and more complex personality organization. Adolescent drive
progression to the adult genital level presupposes a hierarchical ar-
rangement of the drives, as is reflected in the formation of fore-
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 251

pleasure. Ego maturation, distinctly influenced but not wholly deter-

mined by drive progression, is reflected in qualitative cognitive
advances as described by Inhelder and Piaget (1958). Looking at
development and maturation in terms of differentiating and integra-
tive processes, we can now ask the question which of these processes
in adolescence are preconditional for character formation.
I shall approach this problem by investigating some aspects of
typical adolescent drive and ego progression that make character
formation not only possible but mandatory for the stabilization of
the newly attained personality organization of adulthood. If it is
possible to describe character in terms of observable functions, and
character formation in terms of preconditions or of epigenetic se-
quences or abandoned developmental stages, then the aim of this
exploration would be closer within our reach. Zetzel (1964.) has em-
phasized the developmental aspect of character formation and speaks
of a developmental task which, I think, belongs to the phase of late
adolescence. Zetzel's expansion of the definition of character forma-
tion is noteworthy; she stated: "Character formation ... includes the
whole range of solutions, adaptive or maladaptive, to recognized de-
veloprnental-ehallenges" (p. 153).

THE ADOLESCENT PROCESS AND CHARACTER F ORMATION

I have chosen four adolescent developmental challenges which

I have found to be closely related to character formation. In fact,
character formation remains stunted or takes on some abnormal slant
if these challenges are not met with reasonable competence. It should
be evident that I look at character formation from a developmental
point of view and see in it a normative formation that reflects the
result of progressive ego and drive development at adolescence. One
might compare it to the emergence of the latency period as a result
of the oedipal resolution. Whenever the oedipal stage is prolonged
beyond its proper timing, latency development remains incomplete
or defective. We are accustomed to consider the decline of the oedi-
pus complex as a precondition for latency to come into its own. In a
comparable and similar perspective I introduce here four develop-
mental preconditions without which adolescent character formation
cannot take its course.
252 PETER BLOS

The Second Individuation

The first precondition which I shall discuss encompasses what has
been called the loosening of the infantile object ties (A. Freud, 1958),
a process which, in its wider scope, I have conceptualized as the sec-
ond individuation process of adolescence (BIos, 1967). The develop-
mental task of this process lies in the disengagement of libidinal and
aggressive cathexes from the internalized infantile love and hate ob-
jects. We know how closely infantile object relations are interwoven
with psychic structure formation as demonstrated, for example, by
the transformation of object love into identification. I do not have
to remind you that object relations activate ..and form ego nuclei
around which subsequent experiences coalesce, and that they induce
and sharpen idiosyncratic sensitizations, inclusive of preferences and
avoidances. The most dramatic and fateful formation derived from
object relations is, of course, the superego. Conflicts of the infantile
period and of childhood give rise to the many character traits and
attitudes which can, at those times, be easily observed in statu
nascendi.
We recognize in the disengagement from infantile object ties the
psychological counterpart to the attainment of somatic maturity,
brought about by the biological process of puberty. The psychic
formations that not only were derived from object relations, but,
more or less, still maintain close instinctual ties to infantile object
representations are affected, often catastrophically, by the second in-
dividuation of adolescence. Again, the superego demonstrates, by the
degree of its disorganization or disintegration at adolescence, the
affective affinity of this structure to infantile.object ties. I can only
hint here at the fact that many controls and adaptational functions
pass over from the superego to the ego ideal, namely, to a narcissistic
formation. The love of the infant's parent is, partially at least, re-
placed by the love of the self or its potential perfection.
The psychic restructuring, implicit in what I have described
above, cannot be accomplished without regression. The relentless
striving toward increasing autonomy through regression forces us to
view this kind of regression in adolescence as regression in the service
of development, rather than in the service of defense. In fact, adoles-
cent analysis demonstrates convincingly not only the adolescent's de-
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 253

fense against phase-specific regression, but also the task of the analysis
to facilitate regression.
Adolescent regression not only is unavoidable, it is obligatory,
namely, phase specific. Adolescent regression in the service of de-
velopment brings the more advanced ego of adolescence into contact
with infantile drive positions, with old conflictual constellations and
their solutions, with early object relations and narcissistic formations.
We might say that the personality functioning which was adequate
for the child undergoes a selective overhaul. The ego's advanced re-
sourcefulness is brought to bear on this task.
In the course of adolescent psychic restructuring the ego draws
drive propensities and superego influences into its own realm, inte-
grating these disparate elements into, an adaptive pattern. The
process of the second individuation proceeds via regressive recathexis
of pregenital and preoedipal positions. They are, so to say, revisited,
lived through again, but with the difference that the adolescent ego,
being in a vastly more mature state vis-a-vis infantile drives and con-
flicts, is able to bring about shifts in the balance between ego and id.
New identifications ("the friend," "the group," etc.) take over super-
ego functions, episodically or lastingly. The adolescent's emotional
and physical withdrawal from, or opposition to, his world of child-
hood dependencies and security measures makes him, for some time,
seek a protective cover in passionate, but usually transient, peer asso-
ciations. We then observe shifting identifications with imitative and
restitutive connotations as expressed in posture, gait, gesture, attire,
speech, opinion, value system, etc. Their shifting and experimental
nature is a sign that character has not yet been formed, but it also
indicates that social adaptation has transcended the confines of the
family, its milieu and tradition. These social way stations, significant
as they are, have outlasted their usefulness with the unfolding and
implementation of a life plan, with the capacity for adult object
relations, and with a realistic projection of the self into the future.
Then we know that a consolidation of the personality has come
about, that a new forward step in internalization has been taken,
that inner consistencies and uniformities have become stabilized,
that behavior and attitudes have acquired an almost predictable
countenance, reliance, and harmony.
254 PETER BLOS

Residual Trauma
I shall now turn to the second precondition for adolescent char-
acter formation which will throw light on the function of character.
I hope to show that the character takes over homeostatic functions
from other regulatory agencies of childhood.' In this connection we
have to consider the effect of trauma on adolescent character forma-
tion. The usage of the term "trauma" in this paper corresponds with
Greenacre's (1967) definition. She writes: "In my own work I have
not limited my conception of trauma to sexual (genital) traumatic
events, or circumscribed episodes, but have included traumatic con-
ditions, i.e., any conditions which seem definitely unfavorable, nox-
ious, or drastically injurious to the 7!evelopment of the young indi-
vidual" (p. 128).
Clinical observation gave rise to the theoretical formulations that
follow. The analysis of older adolescents has demonstrated to me that
the resolution of the neurotic conflict, the weaning from infantile-
fantasies, will bring the analytic work to a good end, without, how-
ever, having eliminated all residues of the pathogenetic foundation
on which the illness rested. These residues remain recognizable in spe-
cial sensitivities to certain stimuli, external or internal, as well as in
affinities to, or avoidances of, experiences and fantasies, or in somatic
proclivities, despite the fact that all these aspects were dealt with
exhaustively in the analysis. By the end of the analysis, these residues
have lost their noxious valence due to ego and drive maturation. In
spite of this, they do require constant containment, which is to say,
they still are factors to be reckoned with in the maintenance of
psychic homeostasis. It is my contention that the automatization of
this containment process is identical with the function or, more pre-
cisely, with a part function of character. Such sensitizations to special
danger situations of a permanent traumatic valence are to be found,
for example, in object loss, passive dependency, loss of control, de-
cline of self-esteem, and other structurally and affectively injurious
conditions.
It is assumed here that trauma is a universal human condition
during infancy and early childhood, leaving, under the most favor-
r Again, I have to condense here what I have developed at greater length elsewhere
(1962, pp. 132-140).
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 255

able circumstances, a permanent residue. The adolescent process,

unable to overcome the disequilibrizing effect of this residue, assimi-
lates it through characterological stabilization, namely, by rendering
it ego syntonic. I draw here on Freud's distinction between a positive
and a negative effect of trauma. The negative reaction aims at the
removal of any memory or repetition of the trauma, a reaction that
leads to the reactive character formation via avoidances, phobias,
compulsions, and inhibitions. The positive effects "are attempts to
bring the trauma into operation once again-that is, to remember
the forgotten experience, ... to make it real, to experience a repeti-
tion of it. ... [The effects] may be taken up into what passes as a
normal ego and, as permanent trends in it, may lend it unalterable
character traits" (Freud, 1939, p. 75).
The high noon of this integrative achievement lies in the termi-
nal period of adolescence when the enormous instability of psychic
and somatic functions gradually gives way to an organized and inte-
grated mode of operation. The residual trauma ceases to alert the
ego repetitiously via signal anxiety once it has become an integral
part of the ego. The residual trauma has become an organizer in the
process of-character-formation. A state of helplessness and vigilance
has been counteracted by character formation. Character, then, is
identical with patterned responses to signal anxiety or, generally,
with the conquest of residual trauma: not with its disappearance,
nor its avoidance, but with its continuance within an adaptive for-
mation.
Residual trauma lends its persistent and relentless push toward
actualization to that formation within the personality which we des-
ignate as character. Due to its origin character always contains a com-
pulsive quality; it lies beyond choice and contemplation, is self-
evident and compelling: "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise"
(Luther). The psychic energy required for character to take form is
derived in part, from the cathexis which the residual trauma con-
tains. Those adolescents who sidestep the transformation of residual
trauma into character formation project the danger situation into the
outside world and thus avoid the internal confrontation with it. By
failing to internalize the danger situation, the chance for coming to
terms with it is forfeited. This impasse results in what Erikson (1956)
256 PETER BLOS

has described as the adolescent moratorium, which either leads to be-

lated character formation or to a pathological outcome. We gain the
impression that the formation of character encompasses more than
superego influences, identifications or defenses. We are now ready to
state that in character formation there is an integrative principle at
work which bends the various contributing and confluent com-
ponents to a broadening of the ego's secondary autonomy. Erikson's
concept of ego identity (1956) belongs in this realm of clinical im-
pressions.
In the analysis of older adolescents we can observe the luxuri-
ant fantasy life of adolescence shriveling up with the consolidation
of character. Greenacre (1967) comments on the fact that when-
ever a traumatic experience was associated with an underlying
fantasy, the fixation on the trauma is more persistent than in cases
where the trauma was bland and incidental. Is it possible that in
adolescent character formation not only the experiential side of the
residual trauma, but also the fantasy associated with.it, are absorbed
in the ego organization? The thought has often been expressed that
instinctual drives find expression in the exercise of a so-called healthy
character. At any rate, we are now willing to say that the charactero-
logical stabilization of residual trauma advances the independence of
man from his environment, from which the traumatic injury orig-
inally emanated at a time when pain was identical with the outside
of the self or with the nonself.

Ego Continuity
I now come to the third precondition for adolescent character
formation. Again, clinical observation has shown the direction and
cleared the path to a conceptual formulation. I have described cer-
tain cases of adolescent acting out in which the maladaptive behavior
represents an effort via action language to contradict a distortion of
the family history that was coercively, forced upon the child's mind.
I have designated such conditions as "family myth" (1963). It differs
from the classical family romance in that the distortion is forced on
the child from the outside, calling in question the validity of the
child's own perception. The study of a considerable number of such
cases has convinced me that adolescent development can be carried
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 257

forward only if the adolescent ego succeeds in establishing a his-

torical continuity within its realm. If this is prevented, a partial
foreclosure of adolescent development follows, namely, the psychic
restructuring of adolescence remains incomplete. Besides delin-
quency, much of the quandary and adventurousness of youth as well
as its creative, especially literary, productions can be studied from
this point of view.
The establishment of historical ego continuity appears, of course,
in every analysis, but in adolescent analysis it has an integrative and
growth-stimulating effect that lies beyond conflict resolution. One
adolescent spoke for many in saying that one cannot have a future
without having a past. Again, we observe a tendency toward inter-
nalization or, conversely, toward a disengagement (on the ego level)
from the adult caretaking environment (usually the family) which
has acted as the trustee and guardian of the immature ego of the
child. It seems that ego maturation, along the lines I have just de-
scribed, gives rise to the subjective sense of wholeness and inviolabil-
ity during the adolescent years, when the envelope of the family has
outlived its usefulness. Of course, the sense of wholeness and in-
violability has much in common with the psychological qualities that
we ascribe to the reflection of character on subjective feeling states.

Sexual Identity
In order to complete the set of preconditions that promote ado-
lescent character formation, a fourth one has to be mentioned,
namely, t~~ emergence of sexual identity. While gender identity is
established at an early age, it has been my contention that sexual
identity with definitive, i.e., irreversible, boundaries appears only
belatedly as the collateral of sexual maturation at puberty. Before
physical sexual maturity is attained, the boundaries of sexual identity
remain fluid. Indeed, a shifting or ambiguous sexual identity, within
limits, is the rule rather than the exception. This is more apparent
in the girl than in the boy. I have only to remind you of the
acceptability, socially and personally, of the tomboy stage in the
girl and of the deep repression of breast envy in the preadolescent
boy. At any rate, puberty represents the demarcation line beyond
which bisexual admixtures to gender identity become incompatible
258 PETER BLOS

with progressive development. Clinically, this can easily be observed

in the adolescent's growing capacity for heterosexual object finding
and in the decline of masturbation, both of which advance parallel
with the formation of sexual identity.
It is not the purpose of this paper to trace the origin or the
resolution of bisexuality. But it needs to be said that, as long as the
ambiguity or, indeed, the ambivalence of sexual identification lasts,
the ego cannot escape being affected by the ambiguity of the drives.
The maturational exigencies of puberty which normally lead to
integrative processes of increasing complexity are not able to per-
form their function as long as sexual ambiguity prevails; that is to
say, maturational processes will be defeated all along the line. Sub-
jectively, this is experienced by the adolescent as identity crisis or
identity diffusion, using Erikson's (1956) terms. In the pursuit of
our subject we would conclude that the formation of character pre-
supposes that sexual identity formation has advanced along a narrow-
ing path, leading to masculinity or femininity.
At this juncture, in late adolescence and postadolescence, we can
observe how persistently remnants of the bisexual orientation have
been debarred from genital expression and been absorbed in char-
acter formation. The role of the ego ideal, the heir of the negative
oedipus complex (BIos, 1963), so important and decisive at this
turning point of late adolescence, can only be hinted at because the
pursuit of it, relevant as it might be, exceeds the limits of this
exposition.

The Genealogy of Character

The four preconditions which I have outlined rest on ante-
cedents that reach back into the earliest history of individual life.
We have good reason to assume that, beyond these experiential
aspects, there are also embedded in the character structure com-
ponents that hark back to biological givens. It follows from this
view that adolescent character formation is affected, adversely or
beneficially, by constitutional conditions as well as by infantile
antecedents and their lifelong effect on psychic structure and con-
flict. The characterological stabilization of drive and ego vicissitudes
is not, however, identical with character. The four, by no means
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 259

definitive, preconditions must be transcended in some fashion before

the homeostatic function of this new formation that we then call
character is regulated. The credentials of character are to be found
in the postadolescent developmental level which, if attained, renders
character formation possible; in other words, character formation
reflects the structural accommodations which have brought the ado-
lescent process to a close. The extent to which the four preconditions
have been fulfilled, or the extent to which the four developmental
challenges have been met, will determine the autonomous or de-
fensive nature of the character that ensues. With the termination of
childhood during the pubertal period, adult somatic structure and
functioning are reached; this attainment has its psychological coun-
terpart in the consolidation of the personality or in the formation
of character.
It must have become clear during this presentation that in talk-
ing about character, one is constantly tempted to speak of healthy
or pathological character formation. I have not offered in my schema
any explicit accommodation of the so-called character disturbances,
character disorders, or the vast spectrum of the pathological char-
acter. Proceeding from clinical observation of adolescents and on the
basis of analytic data, I have arrived at conclusions and formulations
which I have submitted. These have to be brought into harmony
with observations of similar substance but derived from other char-
acterological phenomena and from other periods of life. This lies
beyond the scope of my present investigation.

THE EVOLUTIONARY ASPECT OF CHARACTER

I realize with apprehension that I have not heeded my initial

admonition too well and have burdened this presentation with a
vast array of theoretical concerns. This is the risk one runs in discuss-
ing character formation. There remains, however, still one further
comment on this subject to which I shall now turn.
I have approached character formation as a corollary to drive
and ego maturation at the stage of puberty. In doing so I have lifted
it out of its ontogenetic matrix and assigned to it a function that is
commensurate with the concurrent biological, namely, sexual, ma-
260 PETER BLOS

turation and the morphological attainment of adult status. Each

stage of maturation increases the complexity of the psychic organiza-
tion. Character reflects on the level of personality development the
attainment of the highest form of physical structure formation and
functioning. References, explicit or implicit, to the complex struc-
ture and function of character can be found in the analytic literature
that attributes to character a holistic, integrative principle of various
designations: the synthesizing function- of the ego, fitting together
(Hartmann), identity formation, organizing principle, consolidation
process, the self, the whole person, etc. All these connotations have
in common the subjective experience that one's character is identical
with one's self. Psychic life cannot be conceived without it, just
as physical life is inconceivable without one's body. One feels at
home in one's character, or mutatis mutandis one's character is. one's
home and is, indeed, a dependable and reliable protector of the self.
One accepts a shortcoming of one's character the way one accepts a
physical imperfection. One does not like it, but there it is. When
Lawrence Durrell was asked whether he is aware of any specific weak-
ness as a writer, he gave the following answer: "My great weaknesses
come from my character, not from lack of talent; I am hasty, rash,
impulsive at moments when I should be timid, reserved and ob-
jective, and vice versa. My prose and poetry clearly show this weak-
ness" tRealites, April, 1961). We cannot fail to detect in this state-
ment a note of pride for possessing the courage to accept one's
weakness. A comment by Lichtenstein (1965) is pertinent to this
observation: "Insofar as we are perceiving such an invariant as a
characteristic of our own inner world (Hartmann), we tend to refer
to it as the experience (Erlebnis) of our Self" (p. 119). Character
formation establishes new invariants in the psychic life, and thus
heightens and stabilizes the experience of the self. This, essentially
identical, experience was derived in childhood from the invariants
-reliability and sameness-of the environment.
Character structure renders the psychic organism less vulnerable
than it had ever been before, and the maintenance of this structure
is secured against any interference from any quarter, internal or
external. If must be, one dies for it before letting it die. The over-
valuation of one's own character makes it apparent that character
 CHARACTER FORMATION IN ADOLESCENCE 261

formation is cathected with narcissistic libido and that narcissistic

gratification is a legitimate gain derived from the exercise of char-
acter.
I am aware that I have spoken above in anthropomorphic meta-
phor instead of psychological concepts. This I shall correct by point-
ing out that the four preconditions are essentially a forward step in
internalization and consequently in a furtherance of independence
from the environment. A higher level of integration is thereby
reached which contains new homeostatic possibilities. In this sense
we can say, applying the genetic point of view, that the utter de-
pendence of the human infant on environmental, protective stability
has achieved in character formation its contraposition, namely, the
internalization of a stable, protective environment. While content
and pattern of character are socially determined, it is only internali-
zation that renders the psychic organism greatly independent from
those forces that brought it into existence. While character structure
is of a most durable and irreversible kind, only a degree of openness
and flexibility assures its enrichment and modulation during adult
life.
The evolutionary aspect of character formation lies in the inter-
nalization of dependencies and the formation of a progressively com-
plex psychic structure. The function of character lies in the main-
tenance of this psychic structure that is self-regulatory, namely,
automatized, and thus reduces the infliction of psychic injury to a
minimum. It goes without saying that the level of psychic organiza-
tion thus achieved facilitates the unfolding of man's boundless po-
tentialities.
In character formation we observe, on the ontogenetic level of
personality development, an evolutionary principle that has its
parallel, on the phylogenetic level, in advancing independence of
the organism from the conditions of its environment. This evolu-
tion has reached its apex in man. Claude Bernard (1859) has ex-
pressed this principle by saying that "The constancy of the internal
environment is the condition of the free life." In this sense, we can
view character formation in an evolutionary perspective and contem-
plate it as a closed system that, through its operation, maintains its
adaptive function, which is to facilitate the creative use of the human
262 PETER BLOS

potentiality. The processes of internalization and automatization

in character formation establish and stabilize the psychic internal
milieu, thus enabling man to shape his environment, singly and
collectively, by impressing on it those conditions that correspond
most favorably with the inviolability and integrity of his personality.

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